2007 Recap-o-rama (with shoutouts)

I'm going to be too busy to make a proper post tonight because my wife and I are having friends over, but I already know I'll end up with somewhere between 4.4 and 6 miles for the day. By now, it's pretty obvious what 2007 will bring me.

With that, I'll recap now.

My goal for December? To ride 3 singletrack rides. That's it. I failed and rode none of them. What I did do is ride in some awesome snow that was probably more than enough fun on its own, but I really wish I could have hit the trails too. Oh well.

For the past few years, my new year resolution is to take life as it comes and try to enjoy the trip. It's almost like resolving to not have a new years' resolution, but without the irony. It also reinforces my typically temperate temperament towards turmoil. So how 'bout them apples?

That said, in the back of my mind, I was really shooting to avoid using my car -- at least for getting to and from work -- as much as possible. The result of this experiment:

25 days behind the wheel of my car to or from work or bus stop. Some of those days were illness or injury. Others were sloth, and a few were errands that I absolutely had to do on my way to or from work that I couldn't feasibly do with the bike and the bus.

214 days of commuting by bicycle. Most of those involved the assistance of the bus, but dozens of full round trips took place. Commuting accounted for more than 2800 miles of my riding this year, a vast majority of my riding.

Although I typically enjoy every mile I ride, more than 730 miles were ridden only for the sake of getting out there and riding for fun, with no real destination in mind other than to return to the place I started.

Errands accounted for Almost 670 miles. In general, I count errands run on my way to or from work (even if they're out of my way) as commuting miles, so this is a little skewed. These are trips where I left one place to run a quick errand and came back: lunches while I'm at work, trips to the grocery store, pharmacy or post office, and things like that.

My grand total will be more than 4230 miles for 2007. If you would have told me on January 1, 2007 that I'd have more than 2,000 miles for the year, I probably would have dismissed you with a chuckle.

Favorite Bikey-things of 2K7:

• Shaking some new hands and meeting some new faces thanks to the blogosphere: Chuck, Warren, Chris from BadgerLand, Chris from Olathe, Eric, Jeff, Jason, Keith the Commuter Dude (who still has a picture of my fat arse at the top of his website), Andrew, Mark and probably a ton of others that I can't think of in my pre-caffeinated case-of-the-Mondaze. This also includes all of you who have greeted me off-line in person. I have no clue who most of you are, but I guess you know me. Thanks for saying hi!
• A few new people in my sphere of e-friends (also thanks to the blogosphere), including but certainly not limited to Richard, Michael, Dan, Doug, and pretty much everyone else who frequently checks in and comments or links to me.
• Favorite bike errand I ran in 2007: Paying for my cars' license plates on my way to work.
  
• Favorite KC local bike information/news sites: KCBike.info and Localcycling.com
• Favorite Bike/Industry news and resource sites: Industry Outsider, Cycle-Licious and The Cycle People
• Favorite Bike Commuting resource sites: Bike Commuters, Commute By Bike, and Bike Commute Tips Blog

Finally, this morning 2007 decided to go out with a bang. Insane gusts of frigid wind hindered my progress to the bus stop while penetrating my layers of clothes, chilling me to the bone. While I rode, I thought of this baiku:

Arctic headwind of despair
Your breeze chills my core
Gusting twenty miles per hour